E.F. Schumacher, author of Small is Beautiful once said, "People who live in highly self-sufficient local communities are less likely to get involved in large-scale violence than people whose existence depends on world-wide systems of trade."

In her new book, Fields of Blood, Karen Armstrong says, “We have created a dangerously polarized world that is linked together more closely than ever before. War is caused by our inability to see relationships to each other.”

We need to build a global community that cultivates a sense of respect for all people, and takes responsibility for the suffering we see in the world. We can begin by strengthening our relationships at home to build much-needed patterns of caring, sharing and respect. Sometimes the problems seem so big that we take our power and energy and direct them at the manifestation of the problem, but change needs to begin at the micro level. We cannot make these changes without the foundational building blocks of the very peace we are seeking. We do so by taking the macro problem to the micro.

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Share your stories and ideas with us and your community

CODEPINK is building tools and ways to connect, learn, share and create together, and we have only just begun!

Let's begin by asking what are the values and practices of a Peace Economy? Building a Peace Economy starts locally. People and the planet matter—they are not for extraction, for labor on subsistence wages, or for profit. Let's become aware of our individualism and create practices that produce results for the needs of our community, collectively.

Email us your story! Let's share what we have learned from each other and what we have planned to help our communities move forward!

Resources

We will offer articles, movies and books to build our own knowledge, including stories from places like Costa Rica and Cuba. Get involved with the following exciting initiatives, to help create a local peace economy: